Did your parents often demean you, devalue you, swear at you or humiliate you?

Did your parents physically abuse you?

Were you often physically neglected (eg not fed properly, forced to wear dirty clothes, or not taken to the doctor when ill, perhaps because your parents were drunk or under the influence of illicit drugs)?

Did you lose one of your parents during your childhood (eg because of death, divorce, separation abandonment)

Did you often witness your mother/step-mother being subjected to physical abuse?

Did anyone in your household (who was at least five years older than you) ever sexually assault you?

Did you feel you were not close to your family, that they did not support you and that they did not love you or regard you as special?

Did any member of your household go to prison when you were growing up?

Was any member of your household suffering from a mental illness whilst you were growing up (including clinical depression)

Did anyone in your household suffer from an addiction when you were growing up (eg to alcohol or illicit drugs?)

Score one point for each of the questions you answered ‘YES’ to.

(The greater the number of adverse childhood experiences suffered, and the greater the severity of these, the more damaging to psychological development they are likely to have been).